The posting below is the August, 21, 2003 welcoming letter from Clara M. Lovett, the new president of the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). It is a provocative listing of many of the big questions higher education, at least in the United States, must confront in the near future. The American Association for Higher Education is a "shared mission partner" of the Tomorrow's Professor Listserv. Copyright ©2003 American Association for Higher Education. Reprinted with permission. KEY QUESTIONS CONFRONTING HIGHER EDUCATION AAHE President's Letter August 21, 2003 Letter from the President Greetings member! Two weeks into the job of AAHE president I recognize fully what an auspicious time this is for the Association and its large and diverse membership. We have so many opportunities to make a positive impact on issues that matter. The White House and the U.S. Department of Education are turning their attention to post-secondary education. We may respond with good-natured skepticism to the current version of the old line "We are from the government, and we are here to help you." But we cannot afford to duck questions about the effectiveness of federal programs that support millions of students and thousands of institutions of higher learning. At the state level, several governors are asking questions that go far beyond the customary ones about accountability for use of public funds or higher education's capacity to fuel economic development. The governors are asking new, more radical questions. What is the difference between public and private higher education? Indeed, is there a difference? Is it true that what is good for ole Flagship U. is also automatically good for the state that chartered it? Private foundations, yesterday's best friends of higher education, are also asking new questions. After decades of substantial investments in our campuses, for instance, they want to know why innovations in teaching, governance, and management are still mostly limited to isolated pockets within our institutions. They are also asking why we have produced so few new models of higher education since we invented the community colleges in the late 1950s. Most important, both friends and critics of higher education are raising questions about our overall effect on the larger society. They note that the number of students we serve has risen steadily in the past 20 years and that our role in economic development is widely accepted and praised. Yet, they also note how infrequently we speak out about the most pressing policy issues of our time: immigration, the health care crisis, the future of our pension systems, security and privacy, and relations with other countries, to mention but a few. And, they ask, what about the interaction between higher education and the two major agents of change in the second half of the 20th century - affirmative action and information technology? Have we fulfilled the expectations of the civil rights and feminist leaders of the 1960s and 1970s that through affirmative action we would transform the culture of our colleges and universities? The evidence thus far suggests that we have not fulfilled those transformational expectations. Mostly, we have opened doors for minority and female individuals ready to embrace the dominant culture of the academy. As for information technology - a force that has already revolutionized business transactions and government functions - thus far it has had a comparable impact on scientific research, but not on other aspects of the academy. Confronted with all these new questions, those of us who came to positions of leadership in higher education in the 1980s usually respond by circling imaginary wagons or by repeating familiar clichés about the intrinsic (and, of course, unfathomable) value of education. To address the new questions that are coming our way, we need help from colleagues who are less vested in the system we shaped, more capable of looking at it with fresh eyes. We need to listen to mature students now enrolled in our undergraduate programs and graduate schools and to younger colleagues just beginning their careers. As an individual membership organization serving every sector of higher education, AAHE is perfectly positioned to lead an essential generational change in outlook and leadership. This process is overdue; it is most certainly timely. Let us begin by inviting to membership and active participation in our AAHE as many twenty and thirty-somethings as we can reach. Sincerely, Clara M. Lovett President, AAHE